


All Hallows

by AirgiodSLV



Category: Bandom
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-26
Updated: 2009-12-26
Packaged: 2017-10-19 02:37:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/195911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AirgiodSLV/pseuds/AirgiodSLV
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>The eerie thing was that William didn’t feel particularly displaced.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	All Hallows

**Author's Note:**

> A [From the Ashes](http://asylums.insanejournal.com/from_the_ashes/) universe AU.

He was stupid for doing it and he knew it, but he’d seen enough people who wouldn’t be able to live out their lives for that to matter when he could give someone a second chance. And this was Andrew.

William fell silent after he finished the incantation, not sure whether the ritual had worked or not, but unwilling to break the silence in case that caused them to fail. He didn’t see anything beyond the ring of black candles, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything.

‘Andrew?’ he asked, or tried to. Something felt wrong.

“Yeah, man, right here,” said William’s voice, and his eyes blinked in a very slow, considering way. “Holy shit.”

 _Andrew?_ he thought, with only a little bit of panic, because his hands were moving now, running over the fabric of his robe stretched across his knees, and he wasn’t the one doing that.

“Yeah,” his voice said again, his tongue coming out to wet his lips and swallow. “Wow, this is fucking weird. Cool, but weird. I can hear you, you’re like a tickle in the back of my brain. Your brain.”

The eerie thing was that William didn’t feel particularly displaced. He wasn’t forced into a dark, oppressive corner of his own mind or having an out-of-body experience, which was what they’d both half-expected from the cryptic phrasing of the instructions. He was still looking out of his own eyes; he could feel his own body. He just wasn’t controlling anything.

“Man,” Andrew said with William’s voice, and then laughed so hard it almost ached, in a good way, in a way that reminded them both of what it felt like to be that happy. “This is fucking surreal. Are you okay in there?”

William sent out a little humming note of affirmation, although he suspected Andrew was aware of all of his surface thoughts and feelings, and really just asking out of courtesy.

“I don’t even know what to do now, dude,” Andrew mused. “I hadn’t really thought this far. It was hard to remember even being in a body.”

 _Just don’t break any of my limbs,_ William requested, as Andrew heaved himself off the floor and had to catch his balance on the polished wooden planks.

“Shit, you are seriously, like, four hundred feet tall,” Andrew marveled, taking a tentative step out of the circle of candles. William held his breath – mentally, anyway – but he didn’t feel anything shift once they passed that boundary.

 _Watch the robe,_ William warned belatedly, as Andrew cursed and shook out the flames that tried to catch on the fabric as it brushed the candles.

“I can go anywhere,” Andrew said. “We should take a walk, explore the castle. I miss opening doors.”

 _Not until you learn how to balance,_ William replied, as Andrew took another step and nearly tipped them over sideways.

“You know what we should do?” Andrew suggested, and William didn’t like the way he could hear his own voice laughing beneath the words. “Go visit all of your colleagues and see whether any of them figure it out.”

 _Please don’t,_ William requested, because the way Andrew was moving right now, the rest of the staff would think he was either possessed or drunk to incapacitation. Andrew laughed again, and nearly fell over forward. It was disconcerting, the way William could see the floor rushing up to smack him in the face, but couldn’t stick out a hand to stop it.

“I’ll bet they wouldn’t be able to guess, anyway. None of them know me that well. Spencer, maybe.” Andrew recovered his balance and held up a hand, touching it to his – William’s – face curiously. “He might be able to guess.”

 _I should hope so,_ William returned, slightly edgy now but trying to hold it in, the feeling of how wrong and strange this was. _You’re talking to yourself. And you’re fucking up my accent. Cut it out._

“Not all of us can be toff Londoners,” Andrew replied, stretching William’s cheeks in a grin and positively butchering William’s accent on the attempt. “You’re probably right, though. And there’s plenty of stuff a person can do alone with a body.”

William wasn’t sure what Andrew was thinking, precisely, but he was wary nonetheless. _If you try to get off in my body, I will never visit you again,_ he said, as firmly as possible. _Don’t even think about touching anything._

“You are no fucking fun,” Andrew complained, grinning again, but William could tell by the tone (even if it didn’t sound quite right, Andrew’s vocal inflections and his own voice) that he wasn’t all that disappointed. “It’s better when someone else does it, anyway. Hey, you know what we should do?”

 _No no no,_ William interjected as loudly as he mentally could, but Andrew talked right over him.

“We should find _Gabe._ I’ll bet _that_ would be interesting. Have you even shagged him yet? I’ll bet he wouldn’t be all that put out if you came onto him. And by you I mean me.”

 _If you so much as send him an owl, I will kill you all over again,_ William promised vehemently.

“Chill out, Becksy. I’m just having you on.” Andrew managed another step and stood, swaying slightly, next to the piano he’d been haunting for so long. “We’ll leave the good professor in peace. For now. If you don’t man up and fucking kiss him by Yule, I might have to intervene. I’d rather shag a girl, anyway. There are some sweet seventh-years here. Have you seen Jessa lately? Holy shit.”

 _Students,_ William pointed out, forcing down another minor wave of panic as Andrew tripped over William’s feet. He’d always hated being out of control; this wasn’t a particularly relaxing experience. _I’m a staff member, you can’t hit on them in my body._

“I’ll improve your reputation.” Andrew held up one of William’s hands, turning it slowly to examine it. “I’ve told you before you have pianist fingers, right?”

William couldn’t swallow, as he was now, or nod, but he felt the echo of both. _Yeah. You used to. All the time._

Andrew sat on the narrow bench, rocking on it and pressing William’s foot over the pedals as it to regain his bearings. “Haven’t done this in a while,” he commented. William’s hands came to rest on the piano keys, light and silent. Andrew paused, and then added, “Can’t think of a better way to spend an afternoon with you, really.”

William’s fingers danced over the keys, not pressing hard enough yet to make any noise. With Andrew controlling them, they were graceful and fluid, practiced. _You do this all the time,_ he pointed out.

“Not like this,” Andrew said, and broke the quiet stillness of the drawing room with an elegant flourish. William’s eyes closed, his fingers tripping through scales and broken chords, and he listened to Andrew play.


End file.
